Improvement in bird-houses



I. J. HILLMAN.

BIRD-HOUSE. No.175,606. Patented April 4, 1876.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

JOHN J. HILLMAN, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN BIRD-HOUSES.

' Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 175,606, dated April 4, 1876; application filed March 4 1876.

To all whom t'tfinay concern Be it known that I, JOHN J. HILLMAN, of the city of Cambridge, county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bird-Houses, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The object of my invention is to secure so simple, inexpensive, and, at the same time, nnique,-secure, and durable an article that it shall be adapted to encourage the more general use of or providing of bird-houses, and so promotethe increase of the feathered songsters about our dwellings.

With reference to the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the bird-house. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical sectional View.

As will appear in the drawings, the house is constructed in the form of a hollow horizontal cylinder, a. This cylinder is provided with an orifice, b, which serves as a door for the birds for purposes of ingress and egress. An alighting platform, step, or rest, O, is fixed immediately below or beneath the door b. To the body of the house or cylinder at are fixed suitable flanges e,\which serve as convenient means for attaching the house or cylinder to a pole or other stationary support, as the side of a house or other building. The flanges are punctured to admit nails or screws, wire or cord, 850., for fastening the same.

The cylinder may be ornamented and decorated to suit the taste, as, for instance, with a miniature spire, d, or with cresting, imitation doors, windows, 85c.

Holes are made through the curved bottom of the cylinder at f, which serve to drain off also afford, with the door, a means of ventilation.

The cylindrical form readily conducts any water which may chance to get inside to the drainage-holes.

The cylindrical construction affords the largest space inside which it is practicable to get with a given amount of material. The horizontal cylindrical construction also affords the largest horizontal area. It also affords the greatest strength, and takes less hold of the winds force, so is unlikely to be blown down.

Sheet-tin and galvanized sheet-iron are suit-- able materials of which to make the cylindrical houses by the ordinary processes of tin and sheet-iron workers. They may, however, be cast in iron or formed in earthenware, or made of wood, paper, 850., as the supply of material or conveniences for manufacture suggest or render the most convenient.

Being aware that bird-houses have been constructed in a partly vertical-cylindrical and partly conical form, which construction does not avail of the internal curved surface of the cylindrical part for the bottom and for drainage, nor afford the largest horizontal area, I expressly disclaim such a construction.

I claimp The construction of bird-houses in the form of a-hollow horizontal cylinder, provided with entrance-orifice, alighting-step, and suitable means of attachment to a stationary support, substantially as described.

JOHN J. HILLMAN.

Witnesses:

D. N. B. OOFFIN, LYSANDER BURNETT. 

